Spring is on the way

 The other day I took off the winter wraps and feed them syrup made by Ambrosia, a German company that also has fondant I use. Today the temperature is up and they are out and about and looking good. I also noted that there wasn't as much bee poop on the front as in previous years, a good sign of their health, I hope. I cleaned out the bottom of each colony with a piece of wood I modified to fit into the entrance all the way back to each corner to remove any dead bees, a few as to be expected. Here is a look them with the feeder pails on top and a short clip of the activity going on.

Spring Time

Today I took off the winter wraps and feed them 3½ lts of syrup to help build them up. Over the past few days they have been very active and are looking for food. It is about a week earlier than last year and I looked at last years temperatures, both day and night, compared them to the forecasted ones for the coming week and they are comparable. I put 7 colonies to bed for the winter and and lost only one, so far. I expected this as one seamed to be a little weaker than the others. This happens. Here they are ready to go for the new year.

Spring Time

Spring is here, at least it's starting to warm up, so today I took off the winter wrap and checked them out. I lost two colonies, and I believe it's because they were not as strong as they should have been, there were several frames full of honey still. My first winter loss, it's not that bad, just 22% of my colonies, it sounds bad but I still have 7 good ones. Four of them are looking really strong and the other three are good. I gave them each a protein patty to help them out. It does look like some of the trees and shrubs are starting to bud so they'll have some natural food out there. Once the temperatures are a little warmer at night I'll start feeding them syrup. Here is what I did and found today.

This is what I saw under one of the stronger ones.

Winter wraps off, I lost the two on the left.

There three were the strongest.

A New Year

I took off the winter wrap a while ago and feed and medicated them last month. Today wanted to have a look at how they are doing and get ready to split them in a couple of weeks. Earlier I put down another patio stone so I'll be ready for four colonies. I only looked a couple of frames from each super, it was a bit breezy and only 15°C, I didn't want to disturb them too much. They were laying brood in between the supers, so I cleaned that out, they looked good, and very plentiful. This I hope is a sign of a health Queen. The frames had brood in the middle, with some pollen and honey on the outside, as it should be. They were busy and a bit aggravated at what was going on, and rightly so, but they weren't aggressive, thankfully. Here are a couple of pictures of who this years little crew.

Spring Is Here

Today we opened the girls up for spring. We took off the winter wrap, did a quick look and they were plentiful, and busy. We changed out the bottom board for a new modified one, it has a bit of a ramp so the water will run off and not pool in front of the entrance causing a problem. We gave them pollen patties and 3 liters of sugar syrup with medicine. They have been out foraging because we can see several with their pollen baskets full. They still need the syrup and patties this time of the year to help them get stronger. With the amount of bees we saw today the Queen is doing great.

Before the wrap came off.

After the wrap came off.

You can see the pollen on them.

An inner cover for the feeding pail.

Three brood chambers and a super to hold the syrup pail.

ReBecca got the first sting this year.